{ "name": "Local Property Management", "slug": "local-property-management", "company_type": "Company", "address": "810 Harris Ave, Bellingham, WA 98225", "review_count": 17, "average_rating": 3.88, "reviews": { "google_reviews": [ { "author": "Susan Zanol", "rating": 5, "review": "Superb! I have rented from Local Property Management for 4 1/2 years. Staff is highly competent and totally tenant centered without being the least bit intrusive. Rent is reasonable and so are increases. In fact, this year there was no increase at a time when huge rent increases are in the news. When I have had maintenance issues, they were taken care of immediately. I have noticed units for rent go fast. I am certain that is because Local Property Management is the very best!", "owner_response": null }, { "author": "Rhonda Steel", "rating": 5, "review": "This property management is phenomenal and responsive. The management office is easily accessible on site in the Fairhaven location, w/ protected parking and protected mail. The apartments are good quality comparatively.", "owner_response": null }, { "author": "Meghan Lopez", "rating": 5, "review": "Local Property takes care of its tenants!! Every request for maintenance was responded to within days, and the manager Dawnah is easy to reach and communicate with; she will always respond to your emails within a day. Our experience renting from Local Property was smooth and everything else we could have hoped for.", "owner_response": null }, { "author": "Jessica Danielle", "rating": 5, "review": "Dawnah and James are a joy to work with, very responsive, kind and understanding! Probably the best rental company Ive ever worked with in Bellingham (out of a lot), definitely would love to continue renting from them in the future", "owner_response": null }, { "author": "Sandra Lewis", "rating": 5, "review": "Good experience. My son rented for two years. They try their best to be good managers! Manager gets busy at times, but always got back with us...but not many issues. Would recommend!", "owner_response": null }, { "author": "Evan Jacobson", "rating": 1, "review": "Do not rent with this company they will nickel and dime you for every chance they get they make up bogus fines and violations also the employees seem completely useless and incompetent.", "owner_response": { "text": "Hi Evan.\n\nI'm sorry to hear that you're so upset that we chose to impose consequences for your actions. Apparently we \"nickel and dime you\" every chance we get, but the only fine we have imposed during your entire tenancy with us was for when a City of Bellingham inspector found that tenants in your unit removed and otherwise failed to maintain several smoke and/or carbon monoxide detectors. Go ahead and ask your neighbors if they've ever been randomly fined. We manage those houses too. Surely if this is a common practice by us, then your neighbors would have similar experiences. But I can tell you right now that they haven't been. We issue fines when there are clear and serious lease violations. Don't violate your lease and you won't get fined.\n\nAlso, this fine is not something we \"made up,\" and it's certainly not \"bogus.\" Not only is your responsibility to maintain your smoke detectors clearly spelled out in your lease agreement, it's also codified into law (including the associated fine) by RCW 43.44.110. Anywhere you rent in Washington will have this policy and associated fine. Furthermore, specific clauses or RCWs shouldn't be required to know that you shouldn't remove batteries from essential safety equipment or detach/disable them entirely. This should be common sense. This violation represents a serious safety hazard that we want to emphasize, something with which you should be well familiar after your household held a wild party on top of your brand new roof we freshly installed (the only other time you've violated your lease, and you'll note that we did not issue any sort of fine for that).\n\nThere are other companies in town that will treat their tenants like piggy banks. They'll charge you an administration fee upon move-in (usually several hundred dollars), and for violations like the ones mentioned above, they'll tack on \"serve notice fees.\" We don't do any of that, and we certainly don't go around looking for reasons to fine people. Again, this was a *City of Bellingham* inspection that found these safety violations - not us. We have to act on these inspection findings, or we can get penalized by the city. \n\nWe take care of our properties. Remember that fresh roof on which you decided to throw a party? That's part of our ongoing and constant campaign to upkeep our properties. We didn't wait until it was a serious problem. We didn't wait until it started leaking. You didn't have to beg us to do this. We did it proactively. We're not at all shy about spending money to maintain our units, even though that ultimately hurts our bottom line. With all the stories going around about landlords who have to be fined by the city, or forced to sell their properties because they let them fall so far into dilapidation that they are unlivable, you'd think tenants would be appreciative of landlords' efforts to make voluntary improvements to their rentals.\n\nIt's clear you wrote this review in anger because we imposed consequences for your negligence. Perhaps when you cool down you'll consider removing this review. I hope it's clear to everyone reading that your assessment of our actions is not fair or accurate and that you deserved the fine you got. And, not for nothing, calling our employees \"useless and incompetent\" is needlessly rude.\n\nI hope you never have to experience the true slumlord behavior that is rampant throughout this industry, because if you think being fined for removing your smoke detector batteries is bad, you are not ready for the greater rental market. Despite your unfair review and your mean-spirited insults, I wish you all the best.\n\n-James" } }, { "author": "Silas Uhder", "rating": 5, "review": "Hands down the best property management company in Bellingham. They are responsive, professional and won't rip you off like some of the other companies in Bellingham.", "owner_response": null }, { "author": "Sandor Voros", "rating": 5, "review": "A great place to rent from! They respond quickly to emails and maintenance requests and do not try to shell money out of you.", "owner_response": null }, { "author": "John and Gretchen", "rating": 5, "review": "From beginning to end, there has been great communication and the unit we rented was very nice and high quality! Would recommend!", "owner_response": null }, { "author": "Ashley V", "rating": 5, "review": "My favorite place to rent from so far! Very clean, nice and responsive management too!", "owner_response": { "text": "Aw, thanks Ashley! We are sad to see you go, and we wish you all the best.\n\n-James & Dawnah" } }, { "author": "Brian Gass", "rating": 5, "review": "Great company. They are responsive to issues and address them promptly. Always professional when interacting with them.", "owner_response": null }, { "author": "AJ Bernstein", "rating": 1, "review": "Very poor management, bad communication, extremely rude and unprofessional, DONT RENT WITH THEM", "owner_response": { "text": "Hi AJ,\n\nFor those reading, AJ is a roommate of Evan, who wrote an unfairly negative review after his household was fined for removing/improperly maintaining smoke detectors.\n\nBut thank you, AJ, for giving me the opportunity to provide further context. As stated in the response to Evan's review, you had no issues with us as management until two things happened, both of which were entirely the fault of your residence:\n\n1. Throwing a wild party on your brand new rooftop - an optional, voluntary improvement that we decided to do without any request or mandate of any kind.\n\n2. When the City of Bellingham inspectors found that your household had removed and otherwise failed to maintain smoke detectors.\n\nYour household initially demanded that we provide you a copy of the report, because you didn't believe us. We did so, happily and willingly, but then suddenly the fine is \"bogus,\" and the fact that we imposed consequences means we are \"very poor management\" with \"bad communication.\"\n\nIt is also very interesting to note that none of your neighbors have been fined or issued 10-day notices to comply even though we manage those properties as well. If we were so \"extremely rude and unprofessional,\" wouldn't all of your neighbors have had similar experiences? Unless of course, there was some difference in the tenancy of your unit and theirs, like, for instance, multiple lease violations.\n\nIt seems like, if you don't throw wild rooftop parties or fail to maintain essential safety equipment, then you won't have any issues with us.\n\nIt's truly unfortunate that you have used our imposition of consequences for your actions to launch a crusade of misinformation intended to harm our reputation, when, if you had just done what most other tenants seem to have no problem doing, you would never have ran into issues with us.\n\nWe weren't playing gotcha - this was a city of Bellingham inspection that found your lease violations, not us. And we also aren't making up \"bogus\" fines. The fine is written into Washington State law. By leaving this review, all you're doing is trying to punish us for enforcing your lease. \n\nI'll issue a final note to everyone reading this: if you're a good tenant, who will take good care of your rental property and abide by the obvious and common sense terms of your lease, I guarantee you'll have no issues with us. We have a great reputation in town for this exact reason.\n\nTo you, AJ, I'm sorry that your experience hasn't been what you hoped. I think you can use this experience going forward and learn how to take better care of the properties you rent so you can avoid these hassles in the future.\n\nI wish you only the best.\n\n-James" } }, { "author": "Merve Candemir", "rating": 5, "review": "", "owner_response": null }, { "author": "Eli J", "rating": 2, "review": "", "owner_response": null } ], "yelp_reviews": [ { "author": "Kiana O.", "rating": 1, "review": "If you like being scammed rent from Local\nProperty! I lived there for several months and experienced several in inconveniences and terrible customer service.", "owner_response": { "text": "Hi Kiana,\n\nUnfortunately, your description does not at all line up with the facts of your tenancy with us. You repeatedly violated the lease agreement, left your apartment a complete mess and then tried to use photos from someone else's listing to deceive us (something you admitted to doing in your subsequent communication with us). I am happy to provide those records if you now don't recall doing so.\n\nI am sorry that you were clearly unhappy living with us - that is not what we want at all, and we work very hard on resident satisfaction. Our Google reviews, which are much more popular than yelp, show that we have one of the highest ratings in all of Bellingham. But still, that is no excuse to continue to lie and smear our name.\n\nI hope you'll find it in you to update or delete your review in accordance with honesty and integrity.\n\nWe wish you all the best.\n\n-James" } }, { "author": "Renee D.", "rating": 5, "review": "Local Property management offers a professional rental experience and is prompt, friendly, and efficient throughout the entire process.", "owner_response": null }, { "author": "Billie R.", "rating": 1, "review": "Completely dis-organized and could care less about potential customers time. Called on a property, Tonya said they wouldn't be showing it for a week and a half, gave me a day and time. Tonya ended up calling me back that evening to advise she gave me the wrong day.\n\nShowed up to the property, with 3 other people and waited 15 minutes. Finally called to find out it had been rented.\n\nNot only did she/they not call us back to give us the courtesy of not wasting our time, no apologies were made. She obviously had my name and number.\n\nI will not do business with a company that has such a disregard for people and their time. I find this rude. \nA call could have been made at any time that the house had been rented. Mind you, it is still listed on their website. \n\nFar to many property management companies in this town. \n\n1 star because they do not offer NEGATIVE STARS option.", "owner_response": { "text": "Hi Billie,\n\nThere is no excuse for what happened when you interacted with our business, and I'm sorry this review didn't get a response sooner. We are much more active on Google reviews, so these few Yelp ones tend to slip through the cracks.\n\nAlso, with this review being so old, I can assure you that management has changed up significantly. I am James, the new manager. Been working here for two years now and have a strong emphasis on resident satisfaction - the aforementioned Google reviews will show that effort to be successful.\n\nWhile I know there's nothing we can do to undo what happened when we were under less effective management, I hope you'll keep a look out for any of our listings again if you should need housing. I promise you won't be disappointed!\n\nHave a wonderful day.\n\n-James" } } ] }, "adjusted_review_count": 15, "adjusted_average_rating": 3.93, "distribution": { "1": 4, "2": 1, "3": 0, "4": 0, "5": 12 }, "summary": { "created_timestamp": 1739205492, "text": "

Good

The sentiment around Local Property Management's performance has generally been positive among many tenants. Several user reviews have highlighted the company's prompt response to maintenance requests and the professionalism of the staff. For instance, tenants have appreciated that maintenance issues were addressed within days, and praised staff members like Dawnah for being easy to communicate with and responsive to emails. Renters have also remarked on the reasonable rent prices and increases, noting that some years saw no increase despite market trends, which contributes to a sense of financial stability. Additionally, the company maintains their properties well, as highlighted by proactive improvements such as new roofing without tenant requests or the need for repairs.

Great

Local Property Management earns high marks from several reviewers who have had exceptional experiences with the company. Tenants have consistently praised the management for their competence and tenant-centered approach, contributing to a highly favorable renting experience. The community amenities, such as protected parking and mail facilities, have been described as top-notch, adding to the overall satisfaction of living in their properties. Moreover, the company's reputation in Bellingham as one of the best property management options is supported by the high demand for their rental units, with some tenants noting the units are rented quickly due to the excellent management. The appreciation extends to individual interactions with staff members, such as James and Dawnah, who are recognized for their kindness, understanding, and consistent professionalism.

Bad

However, not all user experiences with Local Property Management have been positive. Some former tenants have reported issues related to communication and professionalism. One reviewer recounted how they arrived at a scheduled property viewing only to find out the unit had already been rented, with no advance notification or apology, which wasted their time. Such experiences suggest that while the company typically exhibits responsiveness, there may be inconsistencies that result in customer dissatisfaction. Another tenant noted that although their son had a generally good rental experience, the manager occasionally became too busy to maintain timely communication, which could potentially lead to misunderstandings or unresolved issues.

Ugly

A few of the more negative reviews paint a stark contrast to the overwhelmingly positive experiences reported by others. One tenant accused the company of imposing bogus fines and having incompetent staff, although the company\u2019s detailed response clarified that the fines were regulatory and safety-related, and not arbitrary. Additionally, there was a case involving accusations of deceptive behavior during the move-out process, where the tenant tried to mislead the management with false evidence of apartment condition. These examples indicate a small but significant number of experiences where the relationship between the tenants and management broke down, leading to extremely dissatisfied tenants who felt unfairly treated. These reviews, while not reflective of the majority sentiment, highlight the potential for severe conflict under certain circumstances.

" } }